FreeBSD 13.0-BETA2 graphics on the Panasonic CF-RZ6

Software

I haven’t been as excited for a FreeBSD release for a while. We get OpenZFS 2 in base, and it’s more polished out of the box for desktop use as well with better wireless support and prettier terminal graphics. Little touches of polish like that make a huge difference.

I installed it on my tiny Panasonic CF-RZ6 I got during AsiaBSDCon 2019—remember travel?—and set to grab the latest packages:

# mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/
# cp /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/
# sed -i '' -e 's/quarterly/latest/' /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf
# pkg bootstrap
# pkg update

Then did a search for the latest graphics for its integrated Intel GPU:

# pkg search drm-fbsd
==> drm-fbsd13.0-kmod-5.4.92.g20210202

And installed, as per the package’s instructions:

# pkg install fbsd-13
# sysrc kld_list="i915kms"

Rebooted, and startx(1) for xorg worked!

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Ruben Schade is a technical writer and infrastructure architect in Sydney, Australia who refers to himself in the third person. Hi!

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